Paving of roads or streets



Dec. 24, 1935. 5 QURTQ|$ PAVING 0F ROADS OR STREETS Filed NOV. 17, 1935Patented Dec. 24, 1935 PAVING OF ROADS on STREETS Georges Courtois,Paris, France, assignor to Societe Francaise du Vlalit, Paris, France, acorporation of France Application November 17, 1933, Serial No. 698,420In France December 24, 1932 2 Claims. (01. 9413) The present inventionrelates to the paving of roads or streets.

It has been found that, in order to obtain a roadway surface adapted toresist heavy trafiic,

5 paving remains, at the present time, the best solution. However if itis not laid on a bed that evenly distributes on the ground the effortsexcited by the vehicles at some points of the surface of the roadway,the best existing pavement still deteriorates very quickly. Now, aperfectly monolithic bed has some drawbacks, because all the materialsare not equally fit for this use,

and furthermore, in towns, they are liable to prevent an easy access tothe many underground systems of pipes or the like that generally existunder the pavement. It has therefore been endeavored to make pavingelements which, being suitably connected to one another, do notnecessarily require the presence of such a bed or foundation, and, up tothe present time, three types of pavings have been utilized.

In the first type of paving, the various elements that go to make theroadway are connected together by means of bolts, pins, lugs, rivets,etc.

5 But these auxiliary connecting members, in spite of a very carefulmachining which greatly increases the cost of the pavement, areunavoidably deteriorated by atmospheric agents, humidity, etc., andconsequently do not any longer 30 allow of easily taking the pavement topieces.

Consequently, in the second and third types of pavements, the auxiliaryconnecting members above mentioned are no longer utilized, and theconnection between the elements of the pave- 35 ment results merely fromtheir geometrical shape. In the second type, tongues or feathers, on theone hand, and grooves or slots, on the other hand, are provided on thevertical faces of the elements that are to be in contact with the ad- 40joining elements. But the importance of the tongues and grooves, whichis a necessary condition of an efficient connection between adjoiningelements, leads to increasing the thickness of the elements, and,especially if the material that 45 is being utilized is expensive, thecost of the pavement, which is already high due to the special shapingof the paving elements, is greatly increased.

In the third type of pavement, the last men- 50 tioned drawbacks arevery much reduced, but to the expense of the connection betweenadjoining elements, which is then incomplete, since each paving elementis provided with a nonvertical face which bears against a correspondingparallel 55 face of an adjoining paving element. Consequently, with thisarrangement, one of these two paving elements is prevented by the otherone from moving, for instance, in an upward direction, but nothingopposes its motion in the opposite direction. 5

The object of the present invention is to provide a system of pavingthat overcomes these drawbacks.

The present invention is characterized by a paving element consisting ofa regular hexagon- 1o shaped plate provided, on its lower face withvertical ribs radiating from the center of the plate and projectingbeyond the edge of said plate, said ribs being preferably disposed alongthe apothems of the hexagon. 15

As for the pavement obtained, according to the present invention, bymeans of these paving elements, it is characterized in that, a pluralityof hexagonal plates being assembled in such manner as to form acontinuous surface, the three 20 ribs of each paving element each extendunder the under face of an adjacent paving element in such manner as tobe disposed substantially along the bisector of the angle formed by tworibs of said adjacent paving element.

A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be hereinafterdescribed, with reference to the accompanying drawing, given merely byWay of example, and in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a paving element according to myinvention;

Fig. 2 is a plan view showing the assembling of four paving elements ofthis type.

The paving element shown in the drawing consists of a plate 3 of regularhexagonal shape provided, on its under face, with three Verticalprojections 4 radiating from its center and projecting from its edges.These parts 4 are disposed along three apothems of the hexagon and theymake angles of 120 between them. They are of course integral with theupper plate 3 and they are so dimensioned as to engage under the upperportion 3 of the adjoining paving elements, the length of the portionsof said ribs 4 projecting beyond the edges of the plate being at leastone fifth of the length of one side of the hexagon.

The paving element shown in the drawing has many advantages. First itmakes it possible to ensure an extremely efficient jointing of elementsof the roadway, while reserving the possibility of readily taking saidroadway to pieces. The hexagonal shape of the upper portion of eachpaving element ensures an excellent distribution of the tangentialefforts exerted by vehicles, since these efforts are transmitted to thehomogeneous or heterogeneous.

edging of the roadway, and the formation of undulations is consequentlymade nearly impossible. Furthermore, as the plate that forms the upperportion of the paving element is reinforced by vertical ribs 4, itsthickness can be substantially reduced. A pavement of that kind can bemerely laid on. a bed of sand, maintained in position by the verticalribs. The edges of the roadway may be made of concrete or any othermaterial.

It should be well understood that theembodiment of my invention that hasbeen above described has been given merely as an example and that myinvention extends, in a general manner, both to paving elements as abovedescribed and to a' roadway obtained by assembling these paving elementsas above explained.

The paving elements according to my invention may be made of anysuitable material such as wood, metal, etc., and they may be either Theupper portion of the paving element may optionally be provided withcorrugations. It may be either utilized directly as the surface on whichthe vehicles will roll, or covered with a suitable coating.

Finally, it should be well understood that, while the chief advantage ofthe present invention is to make it possible to dispense with amonolithic bed or foundation for the pavement, it is however quitepossible to dispose the. paving elements according to my invention on amore or less resistant under layer of a material playing the part of afoundation. 7

While I have described what I deem to be practical and efiicientembodiments of my invention, it should be well understood that I do notWish to be limited thereto as there might be changes made in thearrangement disposition and form of the parts without departing from theprinciple of my invention as comprehended within the scope of theappended claims.

What I claim is:

1. A paving element adapted to be associated with other identicalelements to form a pavement, comprising, a plate in the form of aregular hexagon provided on its lower face with vertical ribs radiatingfrom the center of said plate and projecting beyond the edge of theplate, said ribs making angles of with'one another.

2. A pavement composed of a plurality of paving elements'of the samesize according to claim 1, assembled in such manner that thehexagonal'plates form a continuous surface and that the three ribs ofeach paving element each extend under an adjacent paving element betweentwo-ribs of said adjacent paving element in such manner as to bedisposed substantially along the b-isector of the angle formed by thesetwo ribs of said adjacent paving element.

GEORGES COURTOIS.

